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The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) will today recommend the transcranial magnetic device is made available on the NHS for chronic migraine.

The revolutionary machine is also available to rent for £150.

In one trial involving 164 patients, 39 per cent said they were pain-free after just two hours.

In a separate study, 75 per cent of patients reported a dramatic reduction in their headaches.

The gadget reduced attacks by almost 40 per cent [SPRING TMS]

Miriam Heyburn, 65, of Croydon, south London, told last night how she took part in trials after suffering crippling bouts of migraine since she was eight.

The retired court worker said: “The device has transformed my life and I don’t have to take anywhere near as many tablets.” Those whose lives have been blighted by the condition will now be able to ask their GPs to refer them to a specialist clinic, where the devices are used under the supervision of neurologists.

Doctors describe migraines as “electrical storms”, during which the brain is hyper-excitable. Excruciating headaches are often the result.

Research appears to show that a brief pulse of energy, like magnetic stimulation, can “short-circuit” the development of a migraine.

Sufferers hold the device, known as a TMS machine, to the head and allow gentle magnetic pulses to pass through the skull, destroying neurons in the brain. The machine delivers a pulse in a thousandth of a second.

Professor Peter Goadsby, director of the National Headache Centre at King’s College Hospital, London, said: “Single pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation is a wonderful example of clinical and laboratory research delivering a real improvement in migraine treatment.

The device is developed in America [SPRING TMS]

“It is both effective and extremely well tolerated. Patients are going to get real benefit from this device.”

Experts told the Daily Express the device, developed by California-based health giant eNeura Therapeutics, could prove a “game-changer”, particularly in cases where other treatments are ineffective or unsuitable, for example for pregnant women.

Consultant neurologist Dr Fayyaz Ahmed, of the Migraine Trust charity, said: “This opens the door for a new era in treating migraine headaches.”

There are around 200,000 migraine attacks a day in Britain, resulting in 25 million lost school or work days a year. They affect one in four women and one in 12 men.

A spokesman for NICE, the organisation that issues guidance on treatments, said: “Doctors should put special arrangements in place if they want to use transcranial magnetic stimulation for treating migraine.